Scanning displays that display an image on a flat display surface may suffer from multiple types of spatial distortion. One type is sinusoidal distortion that occurs when a mirror scans in a sinusoidal manner. Another type of distortion is tangential distortion. Tangential distortion occurs when displaying an image on a flat display surface and becomes more significant with larger scan angles. Tangential distortion affects both horizontal and vertical axes regardless of whether the mirror is scanned sinusoidally, linearly, or otherwise. Tangential distortion is manifested by an image being stretched around the edges where the scan angle is the largest.